CISC 5300: Mission Statement

This is a course for first-year graduate students in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences, who do not already have a strong background in Computer or Information Science. Its goal is to quickly get you "up to speed", giving you background in computer programming that is roughly equivalent to our undergraduate CS1/CS2 sequence.

The programming language that we have chosen for this course is C++. However, this is not a class in C++. This is a class in programming. Our main interest will be in issues surrounding the design and implementation of good software, with a worried look now and again towards problems arising with large systems that must not fail (e.g., the software managing a nuclear reactor).

Why C++? C++ is one of the hottest languages used today, because

1. it is based on the widespread "C" programming language,
2. it can be used as a more "civilized" version of C,
3. it is a multi-paradigm programming language, supporting procedural-based programming, object-oriented programming, and generic progamming.

We will cover a lot of material this month. This course will involve a great deal of work. The learning curve is admittedly steep, but this means that you'll be learning a lot quickly.